Supporting wall construction



R. M. F. A. MARRY SUPPORTING WALL CONSTRUCTION Jan- 30, 1951 5 Sheets-snee?l l Filed Feb. 4' 1948 Jan. 30, 1951 R. M. F. A.,MARRY SUPPORTING WALL CONSTRUCTION 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 4; 194s Jan. 30, 1951 u R. M. F. AMARRY 2,539,850

SUPPORTING WALL CONSTRUCTION Filed Feb. 1948 5 sheets-sheet s 3 $3.1 -lfy f [l .i

Patented Jan. 30, 1951 SUPPORTING WALL CONSTRUCTIGN Raval M. F. A. Marry, Paris, France, assignor to Societe de Construction des Batignolles, Paris, France, a corporation of France Application February ll, 1948, Serial No. 6,206 In France November 21, 1945 Section 1, Public Law 690, August 8, 1946 Patent expires November 21, 1965 5 Claims.

The present invention has for its object to provide a supporting wall construction adapted to be conducted both von dry land and in water for the construction of piers or wharves. Such conu struction consists of providing a recessed framework or skeleton made up of vertically extending elements or uprights resting upon a foundation and interconnected at their top by a continuous capping or coping. In the recessed portions of the skeleton, there are formed horizontally extending vertically spaced tiers arranged to leave between each other a suitable vertical space and having such a depth as to make it possible for a suitable earth or rock bedding or lling therein to assume, between each successive pair of tiers, its natural slope angle without projecting forwardly beyond the general bare surface of the wall.

The provision of a coping upon the vertical elements assures the stability of the skeleton, despite the presence of recesses in the latter. Within said recesses the lling or bedding is supported on the successive tiers thus contributing to the general stability of the structure. Since however said lling, even though it is adapted to assume its natural slope, may not project beyond the vertical plane of the face of the wall, it is maintained in a quite stable manner and does not in any way hinder the mooring of boats alongside the pier when the invention is applied to the construction of an ocean or river pier or wharf. The thrust of the ground can fully exert its action upon the vertical elements forming the skeleton, which may be easily predetermined so as to take up said thrust, while it only acts to a substantially reduced degree in the gaps or recesses between said elements.

There is obtained in this way without to any extent sacrificing the stability of the supporting structure, a construction, in which the requirements in materials are low, and the erection of which is simple and therefore economic.

The vertical uprights of the skeleton may be made up of piles of superimposed blocks or they may be formed of an integral monolithic con-4 crete block. Also the capping may be obtained by means of blocks or of concrete or ferroconcrete. Said uprights, whether they be formed of superimposed blocks or of a monolithic block of concrete are provided with appropriate means such as cantilever projections and supports to receive slabs or arches thereon, in order to obtain throughout the vertical extent of the wall the tiers required for supporting the bedding or packing.

The accompanying drawings illustrate by way of example some embodiments of the structure according to the invention:

Figs. 1 and 2 relate to a structure involving piles of separate blocks;

Fig. 1 being a sectional View on line I-I of Fig. 2;

Figs. 3, 4 and 5 show the individual blocks as seen in plan on the lines IIL-III, IV-IV and V-V of Fig. 2 respectively;

Figs. 6 and 'l relate to a modification involving piled blocks and slabs, Fig. 6 being a cross-section on line VI-VI of Fig. 'l which is an elevation;

Figs. 8 and 9 show plan views of blocks on lines VIII-VIII and IX-IX of Fig. 7;

Figs. 10 and 1l also illustrate in cross-section and in elevation another form of embodiment comprising monolithic ferroconcrete uprights.

In the rst embodiment shown the supporting wall comprises a frame-work or skeleton made up of vertical elements or uprights horizontally spaced from each other and interconnected at their top by a capping.

Each upright is formed of a pile of blocks I, Z, 3. Starting from the bottom there is rst laid a block I resting on the foundation l and provided with a foot base 8 adapted to ensure the transverse stability of the pile during its erection. Said block is shown in plan in Fig. 3; over the block I there is then placed a block 2 of parallelepipedic form, solid or recessed; then blocks 3 and are placed in a number which is variable according to the height and the thickness of the wall, said blocks being solid or re cessed and provided with cantilever projecting portions 9, lo there is then laid a parallelepipedic block 5 which may be solid or recessed.

Over all of the blocks 5 there is arranged the capping S.

The blocks 3 and 4 are provided with cantilever projections 9, lil of suitable length to come into or substantially into engagement with the projections 9, l@ of the adjacent piles. In this way there is formed in the skeleton of the wall a succession of tiers 9, IU. The superimposed blocks Ynatural pitch or slope angle.

are formed with splines I (Figs. 4 and 5) adapted to engage a mortise or slot I6 formed in the upper block so as to prevent any relative slipping therebetween.

Behind the skeleton thus formed there is arranged a bedding or enrockment I I. Said bedding is maintained by the wall only through the rear face of the pile of blocks. In the empty gaps between the piles asat I2, I3, i4 (see Fig. 2) the bedding which is not supported is allowed to spill freely to assume its natural slope. The depth and height dimensions of the gaps or recesses between the adjacent block piles are so selected as to allow the bedding to freely assume its natural slope. Thus, in the gap I2 between the blocks I and 2 the bedding collapses along the slope angle of foot pitch AB. In the gap I3 between the blocks 3 the bedding is supported by the cantilever projections 9 and assumes the foot pitch CD. In the gap I4 supported by the cantilever I0 it assumes the foot pitch EF throughout the vertical height of the blocks 4 and 5.

There is in this way obtained a stable and solid wall, in spite of a reduced expenditure in materials, since, rather than a solid wall there is simply constructed a skeleton frame-work leavn ing substantial empty recesses therein. The thrust of the ground is to a large extent balanced in the recessed portion by the bedding itself, so that only the thrust exerted on the piles and the capping is to ibe taken into account when calcu lating the resistance thereof. This results in a substantial saving as compared with the conventional forms of construction.

Now referring to Figs. 6 and 7 the up-rights are formed of superimposed blocks 2l, 22, 23, 21., 25 capped with a continuous capping 26. The thickness dimension of the blocks tapers down from the bottom towards the top of the structure so that the top of each block forms a supporting surface 2l. Over both supporting surfaces 2i in an adjacent pair of blocks there is laid a slab 28 (see Figs. S and 9) forming a step. As a consequence between two adjacent piles there are formed empty gaps defined by the slabs 2S and 29. In such recesses or gaps, the bedding or enrockment il is allowed to spill freely and assume its natural slope or pitch angle as shown in Fig. 6.

It will be observed moreover that according to these embodiments the spaces between the adjacent piles may be increased as compared with the previously described embodiment. Furthermore accordincr to the arrangement in Fig. 6 it is pos sible to cause the bedding to continue up to a level just below the capping 25 the latter is constructed so that a maximum amount of filling material can be introduced into the upper gap.

Referring now to Figs. l0 and 1l, the skeleton is formed of monolithic uprights of ferroconcrete 38 interconnected at their top through the capping or coping 3|. The uprights Se are provided with cantilever supports 32 at a common vcrtical level. Between the supports of two adjacent uprights there is placed a slab or an arch S3 forming a step or tier. Within the empty intervals between the successive tiers the filling material II spills out and is brought down to bear upon the arches or slabs 33 while assuming its The depth dimension of the arches and the vertical height between a pair of adjacent arches are predetermined in such a way that the foot of the slope of filling material will not extend beyond the bare surface of the wall.

The above described construction may be carried out on all types of foundation obtained by conventional methods, whether by scraping down as far as firm ground, or a solid body of enrockment submerged and guided, or piles driven in and sawed down to level and provided with a wire mesh and the like.

The construction does not require any particular tooling equipment and may be carried out by any usual procedure. Thus 1n the case of a wharf, the blocks are initially mounted on dry land and after they have sufficiently set they are positioned with a crane. The same applies to the concrete slabs when such are used. IThe slabs however could also be cast together with the related blocks. The lling is carried out according to conventional methods after a sufficient length of the pile structure has been effected.

In the case of a supporting wall on dry land the entire skeleton may of course be cast in situ by means of appropriate framing. Likewise the entire structure may be obtained with the use of any types of material.

It will of course be understood that the forms of embodiment described and illustrated have not been given in any restrictive sense. They may comprise any modifications and combinations between the elements forming the various embodiments described and shown. Provided a support'- ing wall comprises the use of a skeleton framework including successive tiers making it possible to support the bedding material with its natural slope angle, its construction is considered as falling within the scope of the invention.

What I claim is:

l. A method of constructing a supporting wall comprising laying upon a foundation horizontally spaced pillars of monolithic blocks, interconnecting said pillars at their top by a continuous capping; providing in the gaps between said pillars a series of vertically spaced horizontally extending tiers bearing by gravity upon said pillars, and placing a rip-rap bedding behind said wall in such a way as to allow said bedding to spill with its natural slope angle onto each of said tiers.

2. A supporting wall comprising a foundation', a skeleton including a row of horizontally spaced pillars comprising monolithic blocks resting under gravity upon said foundation, a continuous capn ping laid over said row of pillars, supporting means projecting laterally from said pillars and vertically spaced horizontally extending tiers bearing on said supporting means in the gaps between said pillars, and a rip-rap bedding behind saicl skeleton, and lying over each of said tiers with its natural slope angle.

3. A supporting wall which comprises a foundation, a skeleton including horizontally spaced vertical piles of blocks formed with laterally projecting cantilevers extending into contact engagement with the cantilevers of the adjacent piles to constitute a succession of vertically spaced horizontal tiers and continuous cap-ping overlying said piles, and a rip-rap bedding behind said skeleton, and overlying each of said tiers with its natural slope angle.

4. A supporting wall which comprises a foundation, a skeleton including horizontally spaced vertical pillars comprising piles of blocks said blocks decreasing in width ,towards the top, to provide upwardly directed shoulders, horizontal slabs resting on said shoulders to form horizontally extending tiers in the gaps between said pillars and a continuous capping overlying said pillars, and a rip-rap bedding behind said skele-y RAOUL M. F. A. MARRY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this pat-ent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,063,558 Ravier Dec. 8, 1936 2,094,167 Evers Sept. 28, 1937 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 120,766 Great Britain 1918 747,703 France 1933 395,534 Great Britain 1933 397,492 Great Britain 1933 864,954 France 1941 

